Orange officially launches mobile HD voice in the UK

It’s official: Orange (www.orange.com) has formally launched its mobile HD voice in the UK. And there’s a new phone manufacturer in the mobile HD voice mix as well.

Covered by BBC News and V3.co.uk, there’s not a lot new, with a rehash of the trials that took place over the summer in the UK and how Moldova got HD voice first and that Orange will not be charging extra for HD voice service.

However, three Nokia handsets – X6, E5, N5230 – will be joined by the Samsung OmniPro in initially supporting mobile HD voice in the form of the AMR-WB codec on Orange’s 3G network. Previous announcements have listed Nokia and Sony Ericsson handsets, so Samsung is the third on-the-record handset vendor supporting AMR-WB for voice calls.

Former T-Mobile customers may not be happy either; the service will not initially be available on the old T-Mobile network since the Orange and T-Mobile networks haven’t been merged together in the UK.

An Orange spokesperson expects mobile HD voice to be a standard offering on all networks in about two years.